A First Nations expert in the Indigenous experience of online violence has addressed the limits of new cybersafety laws in seeking accountability for online racism.
The world-first Adult Cyber Abuse Scheme is part of the new national Online Safety Act which comes into effect on Sunday.
The new legislation gives the eSafety Commissioner greater powers to order the removal of online abuse when social media companies fail to act on user complaints.
Professor Bronwyn Carlson, an Aboriginal woman who was born and lives on D’harawal Country, said the problem is that the scheme doesn’t explicitly link cyberbullying to racism.
“Racism is an insidious and violent behaviour which can manifest in many ways, including online posts that are both random and targeted,” Ms Carlson said.
“If I call an Aboriginal person a primate (online) for example, such as what has happened to sports stars being called an ape etc, it does not register as a form of racism, yet it is.”
“Sadly I do not think it will lead to greater accountability for those experiencing racism online.”
While the Online Safety Act builds on an existing Cyberbullying Scheme for children, the threshold for adults is much higher due to an expectation that they are more resilient.
Examples likely to reach the threshold include encouraging violence against a person on the basis of their race, religion or sexuality.
“Those that show a clear intent to cause serious harm, and which any reasonable person would regard as menacing, harassing or offensive (would breach the Act),” said Federal Minister for Communications Paul Fletcher.
“Racial abuse, whether of sports figures or anyone else, and whether or not it meets a legal or criminal threshold, has no place in Australian society."
A 2020 report by the eSafety Commissioner found Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience online hate speech at more than double the national average in Australia.
While the e-Safety Commissioner will investigate content in question to keep Australians safe, Ms Carlson said she doesn’t think it will be easy to address online racism experienced by First Nations people.
“Indigenous people generally seek help from informal sources more so than official government sites such as the e-Safety Commission.”
“Often trying to seek help is complicated and requires a level of literacy to navigate what is required – like collecting evidence.”
“There are also other issues like close-knit community and kinship relationships – these are complex relationships and involving government officials is not always going to be seen as an option.”
Ms Carlson also raised concerns about First Nations people not being involved in creating the new legislation.
“That is the problem when legislation is created as a one-size-fits-all type of thing.”
“Who is involved in establishing the law and deciding what powers are needed and how they will be enacted? I am not aware of any Indigenous involvement.
“I think we need to work with Indigenous people and communities to see what will work for them. There are also equity and literacy issues – some perpetrators have far more of both of those things than many Indigenous people.”
Ms Carlson said tech companies need to be held more accountable for the behaviour on their platforms.
It’s a sentiment echoed by eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant.
“We have been steering industry to be more accountable and transparent,” she said.
“If they aren’t addressing hateful content and consistently enforcing their policies, eSafety will be able to force a greater level of transparency and hold them to account,” Ms Grant said.
However, Ms Grant said it is social and cultural change that targets racism at its core.
“eSafety will continue will keep spreading the word about how harmful targeted online hate is, however, it is societal and cultural issues that underpin this online invective that we all need to work on changing together,” Ms Grant said.
“Online racism, misogyny and targeted abuse should be a no-go zone, so we have to continue calling it out so that it doesn’t become accepted practice.”
“This is our main call to action.”
